The day I went to see my adviser, only to be told I would be graduating yet another semester late, felt like the end of the world. All these thoughts of "I'm supposed to be a senior right now. I'm supposed to be graduating at this time and this date. That was the plan!" raced through my mind. Guess what, my college degree didn't seem to care about my so called plan. Funny thing is, this thing called life happens and the plan doesn't always seem to match up with that.
It. Is. Okay.
Seems like every time I get on Facebook I'm bombarded with posts of all my friends who are graduating when I was supposed to be. All you see is the success, the congratulations and the "I'm so proud of you's". Fun fact: people aren't going to post statuses saying "I'm graduating a year late, woohoo!" Just because you don't see all of the other people in your exact same shoes, doesn't mean they don't exist.
Heck, with so many majors out there to choose from, I'm truly impressed by those who stick with one all the way through. They deserve to graduate on time! Coming from someone who changed majors every single semester my first two years of college while also dropping down to part-time one semester, I should be thrilled to only be a year behind. I've finally learned to tell myself that as long as I'm on track now, that's all that matters. I'm still truckin' along and that's better than nothing.
So what's the big deal? Why is it that so many of us who take a little extra time feel this sense of shame? I realized that every bit of negativity and feeling down about myself was completely made up in my head. I was ashamed every time I had to tell people I was a little bit behind because I felt they would view me as being stupid or irresponsible. In reality though, not a single person I talked to ever gave me any sort of response that lead that way. Instead they were usually encouraging with words of "hey, better late than never", or "seems to be the trend these days". Let's face it, not graduating on time isn't unheard of. In fact, it's pretty common, if not "the trend". So goodbye shame, it is what it is and I'm gonna be proud of it.
In all honesty, I'm kind of glad I'm graduating late. Once you're done with school, all that's left is the terrifying reality of being an adult. All those years of getting your education so that you can get the job you dreamed of and now there's nothing left but to try and get that job. All of a sudden you're at the rest of your life. I'm actually okay with putting that off an extra year. So many of us have spent our lives trying to grow up so fast. Before you know it you won't have the opportunity to be a kid anymore.
Instead of counting down the days and wishing school was over already, I'm going to take this extra year to let myself just be young.
